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Co-designing Circular Plastics

Co-designing Circular Plastics

News, Projects, Selected Project

The Co-designing Circular Plastics project was a small initiative. As proof of concept, PI 3D printed a scaled chair (1:2) with an industrial robotic arm.

Development of a Co-designed Circular Interface

A user interface (UI) will be developed to integrate distinct aspects of user-friendly and circular economy.

Implementation of Co-designed Circular Construction

A design for fabrication method has been developed to integrate material properties and robotic fabrication into consideration. This integrated design method follows the principles of co-designing circular plastics. The process includes the preparation of recycled materials for printing a chair with an industrial robotic arm.

The Result of Co-designed Circular Plastics

A scaled model (1:2) of a chair was designed based on human ergonomics while considering material and fabrication capacities.

Since 2018, PI has developed an advanced technology curriculum that highlights the agency of materials in our built environment. Courses like ARCH5500-Computational design and construction, ARCH5500–Behavioral robotic fabrication, ARCH 5500-Cognitive design and fabrication, and ARCH5500-Robotic additive manufacturing focus on applying advanced technologies in design. This fund supported these ongoing curricula to advance UVA’s position in sustainability for design and construction. It helped students learn a new economic model in design and construction.

Author and Image Credit

Ehsan Baharlou

Image Credit

Ehsan Baharlou, CT .lab, University of Virginia, 2023

News

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Computational Design and Construction

This elective course introduced students to developing computational design and fabrication techniques, which provide new possibilities for the exploration of the manifestation and materialization of form through digital and robotic fabrication.

Material Tectonics

Ehsan Baharlou will present his research titled "Material Tectonics" on Saturday, October 21 at the 2023 ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference: Material Economies. Dr. Baharlou's research focuses on integrating material capacities and fabrication limitations into...

Hygrosensitive Kinetic Façade

The project “Hygrosensitive Kinetic Façade” investigates the architectural application of the hygrosensitivity of wood. The final design is a kinetic façade system installation made of a maple-spruce bilayer that passively responds to changes in relative humidity in the environment.

Robotic Fabrication of Architectured Mycelium Composites for Sustainable Construction

This CoLab project aims to exploit the unique properties of mycelium in the fabrication of high-performance composite materials for building applications. The team hypothesizes that by altering the inner makeup of mycelium composites, inventive materials with improved thermal, acoustic, and mechanical properties can be designed.

Robotic Serpentine Wall

“Robotic Serpentine Wall” investigates new, unexpected uses of wood to construct an inhabitable space. It created a data- and mathematically driven structure that celebrates steam bending’s ability to radically change wood’s structural potential and is connected with the history of its larger context.

SMASK: A Smart Mask for Amid/Post-COVID

SMASK: A Smart Mask for Amid/Post-COVID

Fall 2020 | Courses
Selected Project
Meng Huang, Xun Liu

SMASK: A Smart Mask for Amid/Post-COVID Description Due to the critical situation of COVID-19, a smart mask—called SMASK—was designed that lowers a face shield over the wearer’s face whenever someone is detected within six feet. Program Development M. Huang, X. Liu,...

Robotic Serpentine Wall

Robotic Serpentine Wall

Fall 2020 | Courses
Selected Project
Leah Kirssin, Bay Penny, Trenton Rhodes

Robotic Serpentine Wall Description The project “Robotic Serpentine Wall” investigates new, unexpected uses of wood to construct an inhabitable structure. It created a structure that 1) celebrates steam bending’s ability to radically change wood’s structural...

Cognitive Design and Fabrication

Cognitive Design and Fabrication

Fall 2020 | University of Virginia
ARCH 5500-001: Special Topics in Architecture
Ehsan Baharlou, Dr.-Ing.

Introduction to Cognitive Design and Fabrication “The manifest form—that which appears—is the result of a computational interaction between internal rules and external (morphogenetic) pressures that, themselves, originate in other adjacent forms (ecology). The...

Wood Proto-architecture III

Wood Proto-architecture III

Fall 2020 | University of Virginia
ARCH 4010-11 / ALAR 8010: Research Studio
Ehsan Baharlou, Dr.-Ing.

Wood Proto-architecture III: Integrating Design Computation and Materialization “It is a question of surrendering to the wood, then following where it leads by connecting operations to a materiality, instead of imposing a form upon a matter.” — Gilles Deleuze and...

Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics

Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics

Fall 2019 | Courses
Selected Project
Tianqi Chu, Jingyao Zhang, Xinyi Xia.

Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics Description “Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics” investigates the physical and mechanical properties of wood in combination with computational simulation to explore multiscale spatial forms in a freeform, self-standing installation....

Hygrosensitive Kinetic Façade

Hygrosensitive Kinetic Façade

Fall 2019 | Courses
Selected Project
Zhenfang Chen, Liwei Liu, Mingyue Nan

Hygrosensitive Kinetic Façade Description The project “Hygrosensitive Kinetic Façade” investigates the architectural application of the hygrosensitivity of wood. The final design is a kinetic façade system installation made of a maple-spruce bilayer that...

Behavioral Robotic Fabrication

Behavioral Robotic Fabrication

Fall 2019 | University of Virginia
ARCH 5500-001: Special Topics in Architecture
Ehsan Baharlou, Dr.-Ing.

Behavioral Robotic Fabrication “A system is “soft” when it is flexible, adaptable, and evolving, when it is complex and maintained by a dense network of active information or feedback loops, or, put in a more general way, when a system is able to sustain a certain...

Wood Proto-architecture II

Wood Proto-architecture II

Fall 2019 | University of Virginia
ARCH 4010-11 / ALAR 8010: Research Studio
Ehsan Baharlou, Dr.-Ing.

Wood Proto-architecture II: Integrating Design Computation and Materialization “It is a question of surrendering to the wood, then following where it leads by connecting operations to a materiality, instead of imposing a form upon a matter.” — A Thousand...

Self-Forming Hygrosensitive Tectonics

Self-Forming Hygrosensitive Tectonics

Fall 2018 | Courses
Selected Project
Yin-Yu Fong, Kirk Gordon, Nicholas Grimes, Mengzhe Ye

Self-Forming Hygrosensitive Tectonics: Developing Doubly Curved Adaptive Morphologies from Uniplanar Bilaminate Construction Description This research develops a system of hygroscopically actuated bilaminated panels to generate self-forming doubly curved structures...

Computational Design and Construction

Computational Design and Construction

Fall 2018 | University of Virginia
ARCH 5500-003: Special Topics in Architecture
Ehsan Baharlou, Dr.-Ing.

Introduction to Computational Design and Construction “The manifest form—that which appears—is the result of a computational interaction between internal rules and external (morphogenetic) pressures that, themselves, originate in other adjacent forms (ecology). The...

Design Computation 1

Design Computation 1

Courses, News

Design Computation 1

Description

Computation has a profound impact on a contemporary understanding of architectural form, space, and structure. It shifts the way one perceives form, the way in which form is purposed, and the way in which form is produced. The course “Design Computation 1” introduced students to the fundamentals of computational design and computational design thinking in architecture. The course examined the potential of algorithmic logic to generate spatial structures by analyzing and abstracting architectural geometry.

In addition, this course introduced students to the principles of computational formation processes that incorporate observation, translation, abstraction, and generation. It also equipped students with computational skills to use the power of computation as not only a representational tool but also a generative one.

The course had three stages. Phase one introduced students to the basics of visual programming and geometric logic. The second phase examined the add-ons developed for the Grasshopper plug-in to Rhino to explore the processes from formation to materialization. Selected add-ons supported the generation, simulation, visualization, and fabrication of forms. Phase three explored parametric and algorithmic geometry through a series of examples to introduce students to architectural computation logics. Each session consisted of a seminar and exercises to assist students with computational design and thinking.

Image Credit

C. Geiger, J. Hirschlein, and N. Lindemann, ICD, University of Stuttgart, 2016.